Hood on run for governor: I don't know

Attorney General Jim Hood said, "I don't know," when asked if he will run for governor in 2019, saying he has family and other considerations but that he doesn't like the way the state is being run now.

"I'm worried about where we're going," said Hood, the state's lone statewide-elected Democrat. "I'm concerned about our kids."

Hood likewise didn't answer whether he'd run for AG again but noted he almost decided not to last time but his mother helped talk him into it.

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Hood spoke at the Stennis Institute of Government's Capitol Press Corps luncheon on Thursday, touching on litigation over House Bill 1523 — the religious objections measure struck down by a federal judge last week as unconstitutional — and problems with the state budget for the coming year.

"It got me sued four times in about a week," Hood said of the bill that drew national criticism, and litigation, as being discriminatory to LGBT people. Hood warned that appealing rulings on the bill could be expensive, noting "North Carolina set aside $500,000 for defense of their bathroom bill." Hood said he has not decided if he will appeal on his own behalf and "We'll have to evaluate who defends them" for others, including Gov. Phil Bryant, who has vowed to fight the decision.

Hood said there has been much "misinformation and misunderstanding" about what the law says now and what HB 1523 would do. He said he believes lawmakers, who had already passed a religious liberties bill in 2014, were "taking a victory lap" when they passed HB 1523.

"People are confused about whether some baker would have to cater to a gay wedding if they had religious objections," Hood said. "That comes from a statute in Oregon. We don't have any such statute that would require that."

"Political lawsuits — that's what's exploded in our state," Hood said. "Political bills that are passed for political purposes ... It's affecting our ability to properly defend other cases."

Hood repeated his recent criticism of the budget the GOP-led Legislature passed for this year, particularly a "sweep" of numerous agencies' special funds and trust funds into the general fund. Hood said a few Republican legislative leaders are calling all the shots at the Capitol and the budget and other legislation are not being properly vetted.

Hood said the sweep has caused much confusion among agency heads about what they can and cannot spend in the fiscal year that began July 1. Hood says his office has calculated that more than $79 million the Legislature counted in its "sweep" to balance the state budget cannot be legally transferred to the general fund, adding to a budget deficit that also includes a $56 million miscalculation legislative leaders called a staff error.

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Hood said he believes the Department of Finance and Administration and other agencies will follow his official opinions on funds that can and cannot be swept into the general fund and he doubts there will be litigation on the issue. Recently, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said that Hood's opinions are biased because he wants to keep control of his office's "off-budget" funds and that they "are simply that, his opinion."

Hood reiterated that he believes the special fund sweep was a move by the GOP legislative leadership to cover budget holes created by corporate tax cuts passed in recent years. He said the tax cuts were "catering to those who can make a huge campaign contribution, just to be frank about it." Hood warned that other states that have had to deal with large deficits have drastically underfunded their employee retirement systems and he worries that might happen here.

"Whether or not they're going to be able to hobble through to January (the regular legislative session), I don't know," Hood said. "If there's another special session, you're quickly going to drain the rainy-day fund."

Contact Geoff Pender at 601-961-7266 or gpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter.